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PUBLIC SERVICES 



OF 



JACOB DOLSON COX 

Governor of Ohio and Secretary of the Interior 



BY 

JAMES REES EWING 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD OF UNIVERSITY STUDIES OF 

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY IN CONFORMITY 

WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE 

OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, 

FEBRUARY, [899 



WASHINGTON 
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
431 ELEVENTH STREET 
MCMU 



r - . <" . ^ 



PUBLIC SERVICES 



OF 



JACOB DOLSON COX 

Governor of Ohio and Secretary of the Interior 



BY 

JAMES REES EWING 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD OF UNIVERSITY STUDIES OF 

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY IN CONFORMITY 

WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE 

OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, 

FEBRUARY, (899 



:^ 






7-> 




WASHINGTON 
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
431 ELEVENTH STREET 
MCMII 



:'t> 



P. 

Th* Uoiv«r*ity, 



PREFACE. 

These pages form a portion of a monograph which attempts to 
point out the extent and value of the Hfe services of Jacob Dolson 
Cox. His official life is here separated from a biographical essay 
which devotes attention for the most part to the military career of 
that distinguished citizen. The writer wishes to express his thanks 
to friends who have kindly assisted him, and especially to Professor 
P. V. N. Myers, of the University of Cincinnati, save for whom 
this sketch would never have appeared. 

Denison University Library, 
Granville, Ohio, October i, 1898. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 



Cox IN THE State Senate. 

His Election and Associates in the Senate ; Field of Senate's 
Activity; His Attitude Towards the Problems of the Time ; 
His Share in Legislation ; Military Preparations 9 

Cox Governor of Ohio. 

His Election ; Oberlin Committee ; His Inaugural Address ; 
Intervenes Between President Johnson and Congress ; Pre- 
sides at the Pittsburg National Convention in 1866 ; His 
Recommendations to the General Assembly of Ohio Acted 
Upon By Affirmative Legislation 1-1 

Cox Secretary of the Interior. 

His Acceptance of a Cabinet Portfolio ; San Domingo 
Annexation Scheme ; His Policy Towards the Indians ; His 
Views on Civil-Service Reform ; His Letter to Justice D. C. 
Humphreys ; His Recommendations Acted Upon By Affirm- 
ative Legislation in Congress ; His Resignation 19 

Cox IN Congress. 

His Election ; His Proposed Amendment of the Resumption 
Act ; His Votes on the Bland Bill and His Views on 
Bi-metallism 26 

Conclusion 28 

Bibliography 30 

Vita 31 



INTRODUCTION. 

JACOB DOLSON COX was born October 27, 1828, in Montreal, 
Canada. On his mother's side he is descended from Elder 
William Brewster, of the Mayflower, the Allyns of New London 
and Groton, Connecticut, and the Kenyons, of Connecticut. On 
his father's side the Coxes were of the family of Koch from Han- 
over, Germany, of whom one Michael Cox (Koch) immigrated 
in 1702, settling in New York City in 1705, soon after the conquest 
of the province of New York from the Dutch. Jacob Dolson Cox, 
Sr., received his name Dolson from his mother, Mary Dolson, of a 
family of Dutch settlers of Duchess County, New York. 

Jacob D. Cox, Sr,, became known as an important man in tim- 
ber-farming by building a ship-house at Savannah, Georgia, for 
the navy yard of the United States. He was thereupon employed 
to go to Montreal, to frame the timber roofing of the Church of 
Notre Dame, which was for a long time the largest building of its 
kind on the American continent. His work also extended to the 
general superintendence of the construction of the building ; there- 
fore, he took his family there temporarily, and Jacob D. Cox, Jr., 
was born on foreign soil while his father was thus employed. 

The childhood and youth of Cox were spent in New York City. 
He received the usual education in private schools of that time. 
In 1842, not expecting to be able to take a college education, in con- 
sequence of his father's business reverses resulting from the 
financial crisis of 1837 and 1838, he entered, as a law clerk, the 
office of Harrison and Ogden, equity lawyers of New York City. 
Mr. Harrison was comptroller of Trinity Church corporation, and 
chiefly occupied with the affairs of that corporation, Gouverneur 
Morris Ogden was a son of David B. Ogden, one of the most 
eminent jurists of New York City, 

The law of New York then required, for admission to the bar, 
seven years' clerkship in a lawyer's office for everyone who had not 
a college education, and young Cox entered w'ith that in view. 
Beginning at the age of fourteen, he would have been admitted 



8 Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 

to the bar at the age of twenty-one, but after two years' clerkship 
he began to form plans to get a college education ; and, wdth a view 
to this, changed his employment to the office of a broker and 
banker on Wall street, Anthony Lake, as that work gave short 
hours and left leisure for private study. 

He obtained assistance from a friend who was a student in the 
Union Theological Seminary in New York City, who gave him 
lessons in the elements of Greek and Latin. He had already 
pushed his mathematical studies far enough to enter college in 
those days. Two years more were spent in this way. His father's 
family had by this time moved to Staten Island ; and he went to 
business daily, back and forth, from Tompkinsville on the Nar- 
rows' side. 

In July, 1846, he determined to go to Oberlin, Ohio, having 
become interested in the college there through the Rev. Charles 
G. Finney, the distinguished revivalist, who was then professor of 
theology and afterwards president of the college. He entered the 
preparatory department, in which he spent one year, and was 
graduated from the college in 1851, with the degree of A.B. He 
then removed to Warren, Ohio, where for two years he was super- 
intendent of the schools of Warren and principal of the High 
School. Meanwhile, he was reviewing his law reading, and in 
1853 was admitted to the bar. His first law partner was M. D. 
Leggett, later Commissioner of Patents, and during the war Major- 
General of Volunteers. On Leggett's leaving Warren, Cox became 
the partner of John Hutchins, who succeeded Joshua R. Giddings 
as member of Congress. 

Mr. Cox's political affiliations were with the Anti-slavery Whigs, 
and he voted for General Scott for President in 1852. He was 
active in the negotiations which led to the fusion of the Whigs 
and Free Soilers, and in 1855 was a delegate to the convention at 
Columbus which organized the Republican party in Ohio. 



Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 



COX IN THE STATE SENATE. 

In 1859 Mr. Cox was elected State Senator in the district com- 
prising Trumbull and ^Mahoning counties, although he had not 
been a candidate for nomination, and knew nothing of it until 
the nomination was made. Upon taking his place in the Senate, 
he formed an early friendship with Salmon P. Chase, then Gover- 
nor and United States Senator-elect, and with William Dennison, 
Governor-elect. He had already made the acquaintance of James 
A. Garfield, the head of the Disciples' College at Hiram, who, 
with Professor James Monroe, of Oberlin, was elected to the State 
Senate at the same time. In the Senate chamber the seats of these 
three men were together, and they were known as the " trio " of 
Western Reserve Republicans. Cox and Garfield lodged together 
at the house of W. T. Bascom, who was editor of the Ohio State 
Journal. 

It was during this term in the Senate that John Sherman^ was 
first elected to the United States Senate, although in the elec- 
tion itself, Cox, Garfield and Christopher P. Wolcott, Attorney- 
General, were managers for Governor Dennison, who was also a 
candidate, and at one time seemed likely to be elected. Other 
significant matters also came forward, and it is needless to say that 
the period was heavy with problems which were perplexing the 
American people. The tone and temper of the Ohio Legislature for 
the term ending at the outbreak of the Civil War were thoroughly 
tested by the variety and importance of the subjects brought before 
it. Slavery, woman's rights, and temperance were the three great 
problems of the time pressing for solution. 

Slavery agitated the governments of state and nation at the same 
time. Senator Crittenden's Compromise Proposals in Congress 
were discussed in the General Assembly of Ohio, but no motion 
was carried to agree to them.- A resolution was passed to send 
five commissioners to the Peace Conference out of a " sincere 



^Senate Journal, 1861, p. 198. 
^House Journal, t86i, p. 77. 



lo Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 

desire to have all differences harmoniously adjusted," with the 
explicit understanding, however, that Ohio was not prepared to 
accept the proposition of Virginia.^ 

A resolution was passed urging that application be made to 
Congress to call a convention, to amend the Constitution of the 
United States.- and later the General Assembly ratified the pro- 
posed Douglas Amendment to the Constitution." 

Massachusetts and other Northern States passed personal-liberty 
Acts, which were in the nature of retaliation for the Fugitive Slave 
Law of 1850."' Ohio did not pass such an Act, although petitions 
were presented in the General Assembly for that purpose. '^ Cox's 
attitude may be seen in the fact that he presented one of these 
petitions himself. There was debate over a proposal to register 
the colored population of the State to forbid any colored person, 
under a penalty, to enter the State with a determination to remain 
permanently. A law to punish child-stealing*' was passed in the 
interest of the colored race. A fortnight before the enactment 
one thousand dollars had been appropriated by the State to termi- 
nate the litigation, in Wayne county, Virginia, concerning four 
colored children out of eight of the Peyton Polly family, who had 
been seized in Lawrence county, Ohio, where they had been living 
in freedom, with a view to reducing them to slavery.'^ On the 
other hand, a statute was enacted to prevent the amalgamation of 
the white and colored races. ^ 

Slavery and woman's rights were connected in the conscious- 
ness of American women at this time, for they felt that their cause 
was in a certain way allied to that of the negro in the struggle for 
emancipation. In Ohio the subject was alive with interest. Ladies 
frequented the galleries of the legislative chambers in 1861. when 
woman's rights were under discussion ; and some substantial ad- 
vances were made, for a law was passed conferring upon married 



^Laws of Ohio, 1861, p. 177. 

^Laws of Ohio, 1861, p. 181. 

'Laws of Ohio, 1861, p. 190. 

^Johnston's American Politics, p. 154 (Edition of 1884). 

^Senate Journal, i860, p. 105. 

'Laws of Ohio, i860, p. 85. 

'Laws of Ohio, i860, p. 149. 

*Laws of Ohio, 1861, p. 6. 



Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox ii 

women enlarged legal rights, in relation to real and personal prop- 
erty.^ To this end Senator Cox had presented a petition. 

As became a descendant of Puritan ancestors of New England, 
educated in the Western Reserve District in Ohio, Cox was dis- 
posed, in the discussions which preceded a legislative enactment, 
to exercise firm common sense, and to observe a cautious, con- 
servative policy in the heated times just before the outbreak of 
civil hostilities. His personal attitude towards the great moral 
problems, when they were precipitated out of the air into definite 
statements in bills and resolutions, is seen in the votes which he cast. 

In respect to the resolution to send commissioners to Wash- 
ington, to meet in the conference headed by Virginia, he offered a 
substitute, saying that it was the part of Congress to inaugurate 
the movement, " while we cordially reciprocate every desire on the 
part of Virginia to cure the present troubles."- On the resolution, 
as finally amended, he cast one of three dissenting votes. While 
he voted affirmatively on the bill to request Congress to call a 
convention^ to amend the Constitution, he afterward cast one of 
eight dissenting votes against ratifying* the Douglas Amendment. 

On the bilP conferring woman's rights. Senator Cox cast an 
affirmative vote. He committed himself to a safe position by 
declaring that, while granting to woman the legal rights sought 
for. the simple and obvious truth of the indissoluble unity in the 
marriage relation would guard against possible unwise legislation.® 
Senator Cox's share, in the legislative results of his term, was not 
inconsiderable. Four important bills" which he introduced were 
enacted laws during his term of service. 

The agitation of secession led to attempts to form a better organ- 
ization of the militia in Ohio, and for that purpose Senator Cox 
was appointed a brigadier-general by the Governor. The move- 



^Laws of Ohio. 1861, pp. 54-55. On February 21, 1861. Senator Qo^ 
had presented a petition for a law conferring legal rights upon married 
women in relation to property. 

^Senate Journal, 1861, p. 58. 

'Senate Journal, 1861, p. 177. 

^Senate Journal, 1861, p. 289. 

■'Senate Journal, 1861. p. 202. 

''Ohio State Journal, March 20, 1861. 

"Note at the end of the chapter. 



12 Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 

ment, however, amounted to nothing more than a nominal enrol- 
ment, by towns and counties, of persons liable to military duty, so 
that Cox never appeared in uniform until the war began. He, 
however, devoted a considerable part of his leisure time during 
the two years of his term to the study of tactics and military 
history, with a half-consciousness that this knowledge would be 
needed. Having made arrangements in the last part of April, 
1861, to return to the Senate at the proper time to cast his vote, he 
began under the instruction of Governor Dennison to put the State 
on a military footing.^ 

Note. — The second session of the General Assembly, for the term, held 
on until nearly the middle of May, 1861, and it will be observed that Mr. 
Cox, while making the military preparations described below, was still a 
Senator. 

About that time. Captain George B. McClellan, at the invitation 
of Governor Dennison, came to Columbus for consultation. Sen- 
ator Cox escorted him from the depot to the State House, and 
was present when the two men met. The Governor offered to 
McClellan the command, to place Ohio on a military footing for 
the war, and he accepted it. The following day Senator Cox 
accompanied McClellan to the State Arsenal, which they found 
almost empty of the materials of war. On their return to the State 
House, a room was given them and they went to work. 

On April 29 Senator Cox was ordered, by McClellan, to proceed 
to Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati, where a site had been selected 
for a camp of instrtiction. He took with him one full regiment 
and half of another. Captain Rosecrans came from Cincinnati as 
an engineer, and duly completed arrangements to accommodate ten 
regiments. 

The Brigadier-Generals, besides^ Cox, were J. H. Bates and 
Newton Sleich, and General Bates, who was the senior in rank, 
took command in McClellan's absence. McClellan had intended 



^ Under the then existing law of the United States, the officering of all 
the troops of the first call was done by the Governors of States. Congress 
soon passed a new law, authorizing Unted States Volunteers for three 
years, and under it J. D. Cox was commissioned Brigadier-General of the 
United States Volunteers, to rank from May 17. His commission in the 
Ohio troops called into the national service dated April 23, 1861. See 
J. D. Cox, in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. i, p. 89. 

^King's History of Ohio, p. 370. 



Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 13 

that the brigades in Camp Dennison should be permanent. How- 
ever, Cox was the only one of the Brigadier-Generals who remained 
in the service after the ninety days' enlistment had expired, and 
he entered the service in command of regiments of which only one 
had been in his brigade in camp. 



Note. — On January 21, i860, Senator Cox introduced a bill 
regulating the responsibility of inn-keepers.^ This is the well- 
known statute, now found all over the Union, which provides that 
an inn-keeper, who is furnished with an iron safe in his inn, shall 
not be compelled to compensate a guest for the loss of any articles, 
such as money, jewelry, et cetera, unless he had refused or neglected 
to deposit in his safe articles which a guest may have offered to 
him for safe-keeping. 

On February 15, i860, he introduced a bill relating to the action 
of a jury, in a case in which goods levied on are claimed by a third 
person, and on March 12 it became a law.- 

It was enacted that if the jury found the property in contro- 
versy rightfully belonging to the claimant, the justice should order 
a judgment that the claimant might recover both the costs and the 
property itself. If, however, the jury found that the right to the 
property was not in the claimant, the justice was to issue an order 
that the party in the execution might recover the costs against the 
claimant. 



^Laws of Ohio, i860, p. 15. 
^Laws of Ohio, i860, p. 31. 



14 Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 



COX GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 

The limitations of this paper do not permit an account of the 
distinguished services of General Cox in the War of the Rebellion. 
This experience must, however, be taken into consideration for 
its effect upon his subsequent career. His marked executive ability 
brought him the approbation of military men, and he returned to 
civil life with the plaudits of his fellow-citizens. Having been 
already in public service, his experience was almost immediately 
placed in requisition. 

The Republican State Convention of Ohio met^ at Columbus 
on June 21, 1865, to place in nomination candidates for State 
offices. General Cox, having served with distinction through the 
whole period of the Civil War, was v/ell known and popular in the 
State. His name, when presented before the convention, was 
received with enthusiasm, and his nomination for Governor was 
made by acclamation.- He was duly elected, in October,^ but in the 
summer,* while he was still a candidate, two gentlemen of Oberlin, 
Ohio, signing themselves the Oberlin Committee, '^ addressed to him 
a letter of inquiry. He was asked if he was in favor of conferring 
the elective franchise upon the colored people. General Cox had 
not attempted to conceal his views on the subject, yet the surprise 
with which unconfirmed rumors had been received in his early 
home provoked the inquiry. He answered immediately*' with a 
carefully prepared solution of the problem. He advocated a peace- 
able separation, of the white and black elements of the population, 
the black race being assigned to a definite area of the American 
soil. From such a solution he looked for a three-fold consequence : 



^Joseph P. Smith's History of the Republican Party in Ohio, Vol. i, 
p. 202. 

"Joseph P. Smith's History of the Republican Party in Ohio, Vol. i, 
p. 20s. 

'OctolKT 10. 

*July24. 

^Ohio State Journal, July 26, 1865. 

^Ohio State Journal, July 26, 1865. 



Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 15 

The black man would be invested with all political rights ; the 
representation of the Southern whites would be reduced to their 
own numbers ; and the common interest and identity would be 
secured by the permanent peace of the Government. He did not 
subsequently change these views on negro suffrage, which were 
commented on by the press throughout the State and had a bearing 
on his relations to the Republican party, but when the amendment 
to the Constitution conferring the elective franchise on the freed- 
man had passed^ he then advocated, in the campaign of 1867, 
amending the Ohio Constitution, so as to accord with the National, 
on the ground that since negro suffrage had been forced on the 
Southern States, where it was really dangerous, the people in the 
North were bound to accept it, where it was a matter of compara- 
tively small moment. 

Governor Cox was inducted into office on January 8, 1866, and 
in his inaugural address- he formulated maxims of government 
in which were expressed his views of reconstruction. Conquest 
does not rightfully give unlimited sway over the persons and the 
property of the conquered. Military government is despotic, and 
if continued after the cessation of hostilities is opposed to republi- 
canism. 

Respecting the general situation of President Johnson's quarrel 
with Congress, it may be remarked that Governor Cox's friend, 
ex-Governor Dennison, had been Postmaster-General in the latter 
part of Lincoln's term, and held over for some time under Mr. 
Johnson. Through information obtained from ex-Governor Den- 
nison, as well as from other sources, public and private, Governor 
Cox knew that the so-called Restoration Policy of Mr. Johnson was 
in all essential particulars that of Mr. Lincoln, and that Johnson 
was not striking out in a new course of action of his own. Gov- 
ernor Cox's predilection was toward Mr. Lincoln's plans, and he 
did not doubt that with his sagacity in carrying out such plans or 
modifying them to suit circumstances he would have been allowed 
by Congress to carry out his own plans, but Mr. Johnson as a new 
man was more open to the antagonism of such leaders as Thad- 
deus Stevens, and his combative manners made him open to defeat. 
On February 26, 1866, Governor Cox was in Washington, and read 



ijune 13, 1866. 

^Executive Documents of Ohio, part i, 1865, pp. 305-312. 



i6 Piiblic Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 

a letter^ to the Representatives in Congress from Ohio which was 
sent to Hon. George B. Wright, chairman of the Ohio RepubHcan 
Central Committee at Columbus. 

Cox also had interviews with President Johnson and with 
various leaders in Congress, and had striven to pave the way for a 
reconciliation between them. In the letter Governor Cox said that 
President Johnson had tried to fall in with the plan which Lincoln 
would have adopted. He desired the earliest possible restoration of 
peace on the basis of loyalty. Governor Cox's acquaintance with 
President Johnson led him to think well of his general honesty 
and patriotism, and he tried to soften the antagonism between him 
and the Congressional leaders. On the other hand, when the 
extreme views of Stevens and Sumner had been modified, a little 
later, in the Acts actually passed by Congress, Governor Cox urged 
the President to yield as a measure of compromise, and not to 
veto the bills. President Johnson had, however, become committed 
to a bitter conflict and declined to do so, and Governor Cox with- 
drew from further efforts to influence him. 

The same year was remarkable for the calling of four national 
conventions.- The selection of Representatives and Senators in the 
States for Congress was the movement which engaged in competi- 
tion the friends and opponents of the Administration, and the most 
stirring interest in such a political act would naturally be found 
in the States themselves, but the excitement expanded into expres- 
sions by the nation, as well. One of the national conventions was 
held at Pittsburg, and the delegates^ were soldiers and sailors. 
Governor Cox* was unanimously chosen permanent chairman of 
the convention. He had earlier in the year withdrawn from Presi- 
dent Johnson, whose stubbornness and pugnacity threw him into 
aw^kward and critical attitudes, and the clear depths of his address 
before the convention showed the strong convictions which 
anchored him. He said that it was " unpleasant to recognize the 
truth that it is in the minds of some to exalt the executive depart- 
ment of the Government into a despotic power, and to abase the 



^Ohio State Journal, February 27, 1866. 
''Twenty Years in Congress, Vol. 11, pp. 220-230-232. 
^About 25,000 delegates were present. 

* General John A. Logan had been the first choice, but in his absence 
Governor Cox was selected. 



Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 17 

representative portion of our Government into the mere tools of 
despotism. We know that the will of the people has been expressed 
in the character of the existing Congress. We have expressed our 
faith that the proposition which has been made by Congress for the 
settlement of all difficulties in the country (14th amendment) is 
not only a wise policy, but one so magnanimous that the world stood 
in wonder that a people could in such circumstances be so mag- 
nanimous to those whom they had conquered." 

In his first annual message to the General Assembly of Ohio, 
Governor Cox made five important recommendations, which were 
definitely and promptly responded to by affirmative legislative 
action. He urged that the financial laws of the State be revised^ 
to secure a correct estimate of taxable real and personal property. 
On March 16, 1867, a law was passed empowering the Governor 
to appoint a board of commissioners to revise all the laws of the 
State relating to the assessment and taxing of property.- On 
March 30 and May 8, laws were passed in accordance with the 
recommendations of the commissioners.^ He recommended the 
founding of a reform school for girls.* On April 30, 1868, a com- 
mittee was appointed by the General Assembly, authorized to 
examine sites for the establishment of a reform school for girls,^ 
and in 1869 the school was founded.*' 

He recommended the creation of a State Board of Charities, to 
act in an advisory capacity to the Legislature, and to supply 
information relating to the improvement of public charities. '^ On 
April 17, 1867, a law was passed authorizing the Governor to 
appoint a committee of five persons constituting the State Board of 
Charities, who should annually make such suggestions to the Legis- 
lature as might be deemed wise.* He recommended the creation 
of Boards of Health in cities and villages, whose duty it should be 
to enforce regulations in regard to cleanliness, the sale of unwhole- 



^Executive Documents, part i, 1866, p. 265. 

*Laws of Ohio, 1867, p. 61. 

'Laws of Ohio, 1868, pp. 38, 166, 171. 

*Executive Documents, part i, 1866, p. 270. 

=Laws of Ohio, 1868, p. 298. 

^Senate Journal, i860, pp. 556, 722, 744. 

■'Executive Documents, part i, 1866, p. 270. 

*Laws of Ohio, 1867, p. 257. 



i8 Public Services of Jacob Dolsoii Cox 

some food and the care of the sick and the poor.^ On March 29, 
1867, a law was passed that the City Council of any city shall have 
power to create a board of health,^ and later another law was passed 
that the Council of any incorporated village could, according to 
the Act for Cities, create a board of health." He recommended the 
ratification of the proposed 14th amendment to the Constitution.* 
On January 11, 1867, the General Assembly ratified the amend- 
ment on the part of Ohio.^ Governor Cox exercised the functions 
of Chief Executive of the State of Ohio with credit to himself and 
satisfaction to the people. 

His views on the solution of the negro problem" and his vindica- 
tion of President Johnson, in which he strove to soften the antag- 
onism between the President and Congress, placed him in ques- 
tionable favor with the Republican party in the State. Although he 
was urged at last to permit his name to be presented to the conven- 
tion for renomination, he firmly declined, having several months 
previously expressed a determination not to be a candidate a second 
time. 



'Executive Documents, part i, 1866, p. 270. 

-Laws of Ohio, 1867, p. 76. 

^Laws of Ohio, 1867, p. 147. 

■•Executive Documents, part i, 1866. p. 281. 

^Laws of Ohio, 1867, p. 320. 

^Letter of Sherman to Grant, North American Review, Vol. 143. p. 83. 



Public Services of Jacob Dolsoit Cox 19 



COX SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. 

While General Grant was acting as Secretary of War ad interim^ 
Mr. Stanton having been suspended by President Johnson, a sug- 
gestion for his successor was made by General Sherman. The 
latter thought that the restoration of Mr. Stanton would not be 
acceptable to the President and the Army, and he believed that 
Governor Cox of Ohio, whose term would close in a short time, 
would be confirmed by the Senate as General Grant's successor. 
He did not know that the position would be acceptable to Governor 
Cox, if it were tendered to him. Senator Reverdy Johnson, with 
whom he talked, joined with him in approval, and the next day 
saw the President. Several Senators whom General Sherman 
addressed encouraged him in the idea. General Grant assured 
General Sherman that both he and the Army would agree to 
Governor Cox. When General Sherman obtained an interview 
with the President, the latter informed him in answer to his inquiry 
that Senator Reverdy Johnson had seen him in regard to Governor 
Cox, but the President gave General Sherman no further assur- 
ance than that he had a good opinion of him.^ 

When General Grant become President he was already familiar 
with Mr. Cox's ability and the excellent services which he had 
rendered during the war. He, therefore, tendered him the Secre- 
taryship of, the Interior, and the position was accepted. 

The annexation of San Domingo was the first important aim of 
President Grant in his first Administration.^ To this the Cabinet, 
as well as Congress was " consistently opposed." The discussion 
of the subject at Cabinet meetings had been free, and the members 
were agreed with Mr. Fish, Secretary of State, that the Adminis- 
tration should adopt " a cordially friendly attitude to the actual 
government^ in San Domingo, with decided discouragement to all 



^ North American Review. Vol. 14,3, pp. 8.3-84. 

•For the account of the San Domingo affair, I have used the article by 
J. D. Cox, in the Atlantic Monthly. August, 1895. pp. 165-167. 

•Cabral, at the head of an insurrectionary force in the island, \va> the 
rival of Baez, who was the leader of the established government. 



20 Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 

intervention and filibustering." The asserted desire of the Navy 
Department that the United States should have the Bay of Samana, 
in the eastern part of the island, as a coaling station, having been 
brought to the attention of the Cabinet by a casual observation of 
the President, was followed by Grant's declaration that he would 
send Colonel Babcock^ in a confidential way to inspect the bay. It 
was understood in the Cabinet that the preliminary investigation 
was known only to the intimate circle around the President, but 
events occurred- before the departure which proved that the project 
had acquired a degree of pubUcity. When Babcock's return was 
announced by the press, Secretary Cox repaired to the Department 
of State. When they were alone, Secretary Fish turned to Cox and 
said : " What do you think ! Babcock is back, and has actually 
brought a treaty for the cession of San Domingo ; yet I pledge you 
my word he had no more diplomatic authority than any other casual 
visitor to the island." The two Secretaries agreed at the end of 
their discussion that the wisest pohcy, when the President next 
met the Cabinet, was " to insist upon burying the whole in oblivion 
as a state secret." In the meantime, the Cabinet members had 
expressed themselves in agreement with Mr. Fish's suggestion. It 
now rested upon the Secretary of State to present this item of his 
portfolio, when called upon by the President in regular Cabinet 
meeting. The President, " contrary to his custom, took the initia- 
tive," when they next met. " Babcock has returned, as you see," 
he said, " and has brought a treaty of annexation. I suppose it is 
not formal, as he had no diplomatic powers, but we can easily cure 
that. We can send back the treaty, and have Perry, the consular 
agent, sign it, and as he is an officer of the State Department, it 
would make it all right." After a moment of embarrassing silence. 
Secretary Cox said : " But, Mr. President, has it been decided, 
then, that we ivant to annex San Domingo?" The direct question 
evidently embarrassed General Grant. He colored and smoked hard 
at his cigar. He glanced at Mr. Fish at his right, but the face of 
the Secretary was impassive, and his eyes were fixed on the port- 
folio before him. He turned to Mr. Boutwell on his left, but no 



^Assistant Private Secretary to the President. 

'^ Some merchants trading with the island offered Babcock free passage 
on one of their vessels, and it was reported that a United States Senator 
was to accompany him. 



Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 21 

response met him there. As the silence became painful, the Presi- 
dent called for another item of business, and left the question unan- 
swered. The subject was never again brought up before the assem- 
bled Cabinet. 

Secretary Cox was at the head of the Interior Department, when 
a new era was entered, in the policy of the National Government, 
tow^ard the Indians.^ He saw the satisfactory results of President 
Grant's " peace policy," and interpreted the definite movement as an 
attempt to secure " co-operation between the Government and the 
active benevolence of the people in the work of civilization."- The 
policy of the Government had for a long time been that Indian 
tribes in the vicinity of white settlers should live upon definite 
reservations. 

The conditions of travel were suddenly changed in 1869, when 
the Pacific Railroad was completed. " Instead of a slowly advanc- 
ing tide of immigration making its gradual inroads upon the cir- 
cumference of a great interior wilderness, the very centre of the 
desert had been pierced."^ The white population had been slowly 
but surely inclosing and invading the Indian settlements, and now, 
when the numbers of the white people suddenly increased, the 
tendency w^as accordingh'' aggravated. A remedy appeared to lie 
in a change in the Indian territories. Instead of assigning a sepa- 
rate reservation to each tribe, as the National Government had been 
accustomed to do " in most instances," Secretary Cox advocated 
the aggregation of tribes upon large reservations.* He also was in 
favor of allotting land in severalty when the Indians were prepared 
for it.^ 

During this Administration the people of the United States 
became aroused over the need of removing the abuses of the Civil 
Service, and Secretary Cox, in his annual report for 1869, expressed 
a hope that there would be reform in the near future. He advo- 
cated raising the standard of qualification for appointment, making 
merit the ground of promotion, and securing permanence of tenure 
of office to the incumbent who should prove efficient.*' The useful- 



^The Indian Office was included under the Interior Department. 

^International Review, Vol. 6, p. 630. 

'Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1869, p. 7. 

*Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1869, p. 8. 

^Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1869, p. 9. 

^Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1869, p. 24. 



22 Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 

ness of an efficient clerk he regarded as increased by the increasing 
duration of his incumbency. He later added the conviction that the 
standard of qualification would be raised by admitting to the Civil 
Service aspirants by competitive examination open to all.^ 

The vast army of officers of the Government ranking below the 
members of the Cabinet, and their functions being purely clerical, 
their selection should be made irrespective of their political affilia- 
tions. He believed that thus an advantage would be gained by the 
growth in the personnel of the National Government of a feeling 
that they were the servants of the people." 

In August, 1870, a formal notice was served upon Secretary 
Cox that Justice D. C. Humphreys, of the Supreme Court of the 
District of Columbia, would hear a motion for contempt of an 
injunction. It was not asserted that the motion could be against 
the Secretary of the Interior, but Secretary Cox in his course of 
action assumed such to be the fact. The stage of the case hinted at 
by the notice of the Court grew out of certain past events. 

In 1868 William McGarrahan,^ alleging himself to be the pur- 
chaser of a claim of land in California, filed a petition in the 
Supreme Court of the District of Columbia for a mandamus com- 
manding the Secretary of the Interior to issue to him a patent for 
the land. 

The Court ordered Secretary Browning to show why the man- 
damus should not be issued; he answered that the Court did not 
have jurisdiction over the subject-matter of the case. However, 
a mandamus was issued directing Secretary Browning or his suc- 
cessor in office to convey to McGarrahan the land in question. Four 
months before, Secretary Browning had been succeeded in office by 
Mr. Cox, and the mandamus was served upon Secretary Cox. The 
latter sued out a writ of error against McGarrahan and removed 
the case into the Supreme Court of the United States. 

The Court rendered the following in its decision : " A judgment 
in mandamus ordering the performance of an official duty against 



^North American Review, Vol. 112. p. 98. 
''North American Review, Vol. 112, pp. 105-106. 

^Wallace's Reports of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, Vol. 9, p. 298, et seq. 



Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 23 

an ofificer as if yet in office, when, in fact, he had gone out after the 
service of the writ, and before the judgment, is void; such a judg- 
ment cannot be executed against his successor." 

" A mandamus to compel either the Commissioner of the Gen- 
eral Land Office or the Secretary of the Interior to issue the patent 
cannot be sustained under the statutes as now existing. The grant- 
ing of a patent for lands in cases where proof, hearing, decision 
are required, and where the exercise of judgment and discre- 
tion is thus necessary, is not a matter wherein the action of the 
Department of the Interior is subject to re-examination by the 
Supreme Court of the District." 

Secretary Cox was proceeding with the application of the New 
Idria Mining Company for a patent for land in California, and 
McGarrahan brought suit for injunction against the company and 
against Secretary Cox for contempt of injunction. Secretary Cox 
addressed to Humphreys a letter^ asking if the Secretary were 
trenching upon the jurisdiction of the Court in executing the trust 
committed to him, or whether the Court were not trenching upon 
the Secretary's jurisdiction, if the injunction were intended to 
obstruct the order of business before him. Assuming that the 
Department of the Interior had been made a party to the record, 
and that an injunction had been asked for, as it had not, to forbid 
their proceeding with application of the New Idria Mining Com- 
pany for a patent for land, the Secretary further asked if the 
Court could have interfered by injunction to prevent him from 
acting upon the application. Secretary Cox defended his own posi- 
tion successfully by presenting the decision of the Supreme Court of 
the United States in the case to which he was himself a party 
against McGarrahan. He removed the opportunity of a reply from 
the opposite side by proving that the duties involved were not 
merely ministerial,- but discretionary, and that there was no 



^ Letter of Honorable J. D. Cox, Secretary of the Interior, to Honor- 
able D. C. Humphreys, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
District of Columbia. 

^The Supreme Court of the United States, in The Secretary of the 
Interior vs. McGarranan, decided that the Secretary's duties in McGarra- 
han's case were discretionary. 



24 Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 

distinction between proceeding for a mandamus and an injunc- 
tion.^ 

Secretary Cox was almost the only member of the Cabinet who 
retained his position for a longer duration than the first year of 
the Administration, and before Grant's first term had half expired 
every original member of the Cabinet, with the exception of Bout- 
well, had been succeeded by another. Some of the resignations 
were, in fact, due to causes disconnected wirh the Administration, 
and whatever embarrassment was felt it was consistent with the 
situation that it should not have been borne wholly by anyone. 
But the resignations which occurred when the President and his 
advisers had for some time been together at the head of the Govern- 
ment arose out of different conditions. The San Domingo- affair 
had unfortunate effects in the Cabinet, and the persistent efforts 
of Grant to bring his annexation scheme to a successful issue in the 
confirmation of it by the Senate illustrate his lack of fitness at 
that time for civil business. 

President Grant, in military fashion, conceived in his mind an 
object to be attained and instinctively regarded every officer of 
the Government as a subordinate who should acquiesce in the com- 
mands of a chief. Mr. Fish, Secretary of State, who stood in cor- 
dial relations with Senator Sumner, an ardent opponent of the 
annexation, found his attitude toward the Senator open to the 
false interpretation of duplicity, and was persuaded only by strong 
personal influences and a sense of duty from resigning. 

Attorney-General Hoar made a modest and courteous avowal of ■ 
his willingness to yield his Cabinet position to meet any need of 
President Grant for the success of his Administration, and found 
his official connection with the President curtly ended when the 
latter resorted to a bargain with Southern Senators for their sup- 
port of the annexation scheme. 

The quality which specially fitted Grant for a superior military 
commander reacted with injurious effect when he carried on the 
affairs of the state. His Cabinet officers felt that they were deprived 



^ Announced in the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
in LitcMcld vs. The Register and Receiver of the Land Office at Fort Dodge. — 
Wallace's Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, Vol. g, 

pp. 576-577. 

*J. D. Cox, in the Atlantic Monthly, August, 1895, pp. 164-173. 



Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 25 

of the tie which bound them to the President when they could not 
serve him with a cordial and confidential interchange of opinion. 
Secretary Cox could not be reconciled to retain his portfolio, and 
resigned in November, 1870.^ 



^ Secretary Cox made three recommendations which received affirma- 
tive legislative action in Congress. He recommended the creation of a 
court in Washington, D. C, " for the summary trial of minor offenses." 
Acting upon this suggestion, Congress enacted, June 17, 1870, that there 
should be established in the District of Columbia a court to be called 
The Police Court of the District of Columbia, with jurisdiction over mis- 
demeanors. He recommended, also, that the penitentiaries in the Terri- 
tories be put under the charge of United States Marshals. Congress 
agreed to this and to the erection of a new jail in the District of Columbia. 
See Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1869, p. 24; 1870, p. 20, 22; 
United States Statutes at Large, Vol. 16, pp. 153-157; p. 398, Vol. 17, 
p. 211. 



26 Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 



COX IN CONGRESS. 

Mr. Cox's nomination by the Republicans of the Toledo district 
for Representative in the Forty-fifth Congress was tendered to him 
unexpectedly on his part, and he accepted the honor, which he had 
not sought. He was duly elected, and took his place in a Congress 
which was distinguished for placing the country again on a 
bi-metallic basis, and for witnessing the operation of the resumption 
of specie payments. By this time a reactionary sentiment against 
the Resumption Act had arisen for various reasons, and was having 
its effect in Congress. On October 31, 1877, in the special session 
a bill was introduced for the repeal of the third section of the 
Resumption Act. Among other amendments offered was one by 
Mr. Cox.^ The distinctive features of the original law and of 
Cox's proposed amendment were that the Resumption Act required 
for every issue of national bank notes eighty per cent, of the legal 
tender notes to be retired, while, by Cox's proposed amendment, 
legal tender notes were redeemed, with the regular increase of the 
value of the paper dollar one-half per cent, semi-annually, until its 
value was at par with coin.^ The legal tender notes in excess of 
three hundred millions of dollars were redeemed by the Resumption 
Act, with the contingency of re-issue, while by Cox's proposed 
amendment they were canceled after redemption. 

The Resumption Act left open the question of the re-issuing of 
the three hundred millions of dollars of notes after their redemption. 
The proposed amendment settled the disputed point by keeping the 
notes in circulation. Mr. Cox affirmed that his amendment would 
avoid a forced contraction by gradually reducing the premium on 
coin, while the holder's confidence in his currency would be in- 
creased, and there would be no temptation to hoard the legal 
tender notes. 

Paper money enough, he believed, would be floated to gauge the 
actual volume of business.^ When it was decided by the passage- 



*Congressional Record, 45th Congress, ist Session, p. 257. 
'Beginning at the ratio of 97 to 100 on January ist, 1878. 
•Congressional Record, 45th Congress, ist Session, pp. 266-269. 



Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 21 

of the Resumption Act to resume specie payments, interest began 
to be aroused as to whether a single or double standard would be 
issued to redeem the legal tender notes, and when the Bland bill 
was introduced, Mr. Cox voted^ for it, as he did also when it was 
returned to the House with the Senate's amendment.^ 

He had declared himself previously in favor of bi-metallism ; 
and his attitude did not at any time change except that, regarding 
the question as a purely practical one, he held that whenever the 
policy of the civilized world in this respect should become practi- 
cally settled or evidently tending to a practical settlement, it would 
be right and wise to acquiesce in such settlement. 



^Congressional Record, 45th Congress, ist Session, p. 241 
•Congressional Record, 45th Congress, ist Session, pp. 1284-1285. 



28 Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 



CONCLUSION. 

In 1873, when Mr. Cox had in full resumed legal practice in 
Cincinnati, friends and clients of his in New York were the owners 
of a controlling interest in the stocks of the Toledo and Wabash 
and Western Railroad Company. The panic of that year, which 
began with the failure of Jay Cooke & Co., involved these gentle- 
men, and when the time for the annual meeting of the company 
came they had been obliged to part with portions of the stock 
after the closing of the stock-book prior to the election, according 
to law. They asked Mr. Cox to attend the annual meeting at 
Toledo and to manage their interests there, in view of an effort 
which they learned would be made to prevent their voting upon the 
stock as it stood upon the transfer book. They anticipated that 
injunctions might be asked for to interfere with the course of the 
meeting. Mr. Cox attended, therefore, as their counsel, with their 
proxies, and became chairman of the stockholders' meeting. The 
hostile efforts were, in fact, made, but the course which he pursued 
was in the main successful, and led to a proposition from the 
adverse party that if Mr. Cox would himself accept the presidency 
of the road they would withdraw all opposition, make his election 
unanimous and assist him in saving the property from wreck. 
Under these circumstances, he accepted the election, and when it 
became necessary for the company to go through a foreclosure 
the Court appointed him the receiver, and he controlled the prop- 
erty until the reorganization in 1876-77. Mr. Cox took the com- 
plete general management of the road personally and administered 
its affairs during that period. At the close of Mr. Cox's term in 
Congress, on March 4, 1879, he returned again to Cincinnati and 
resumed legal practice. In 1881 the Hon. Rufus King, desiring to 
retire from the deanship of the Cincinnati Law School, Mr. Cox 
was invited to take that position, which he accepted, and remained 
in it till the close of the academic year of 1897, This position 
required, of course, a larger amount of lecturing than any other 
member of the faculty performed, and under the rule adopted by 
the board of trustees the dean did not engage in court practice, 



Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 29 

as that would interfere with the constant administration of the 
school necessary, but he confined himself, besides attending the 
duties of the school, to what is known as chamber practice, includ- 
ing action as referee and master in cases referred to him out of the 
courts. During a portion of the time from 1881 to 1897 Mr. Cox 
also acted as president of the University of Cincinnati. 

Mr. Cox devoted himself at intervals during his later life to 
microscopical science. His papers in this sphere of knowledge 
have been printed in microscopical journals and have gained for 
him wide recognition. He was elected corresponding member of 
the Belgian Microscopical Society and fellow of the Royal Micro- 
scopical Society. For more than twenty years Mr. Cox reviewed 
books for The Nation, chiefly those relating to the military and 
civil history of our civil-war period. 

Dr. Cox had conferred upon him the following academic de- 
grees : A.B. and A.M., by Oberlin College, in the years 1851 and 
1854, respectively; and LL.D., by Denison University in 1867, 
the University of North Carolina in 1869 and Yale University 
in 1879. 



30 Public Services of Jacob Dolson Cox 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Senate Journal of Ohio— i860. 1861, 1869. 

House Journal of Ohio — 1860-1861. 

Laws of Ohio — 1860-1861. 1867-1868. 

Ohio State Journal — 1860-1861, 1865-1866. 

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion. 

Executive Documents of Ohio — 1865-1866. 

Report of the Secretary of the Interior — 1869-1870. 

Wallace — Reports of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United 

States, Vol. 9. 
Letter of J. D. Cox to Hon. D. C. Humphreys, Associate Justice of the 

Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. 
United States Statutes-at-Large — Vols. 16-17. 
Congressional Record — 45th Congress. 
House Reports — 45th Congress, Vol. i. 
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. 
J. D. Cox — March to the Sea; Franklin and Nashville. 
J. D. Cox— Battle of Franklin. 
Sketches of War History — Papers read before the Ohio Commandery 

of the Loyal Legion of the United States. 
Greely — American Conflict. 
Whitelaw Reid — Ohio in the War. 
J. G. Blaine — Twenty Years in Congress. 
Lalor — Cyclopaedia of Political Science. 
Johnstons American Politics. 
Larned — History for Ready Reference. 
King — History of Ohio (in Commonwealth Series). 
E. B. Andrews — Last Quarter Century in the United States. 
J. P. Smith — History of the Republican Party in Ohio. 
Atlantic Monthly — August, 1895. 
North American Review — Vols. 112, 143. 
International Review — Vol. 6. 



Public Serz'ices of Jacob Dolsoii Cox 31 



VITA. 

James Rees Evving was born in Colnmbiis, Ohio, June 25, 
1870. Having spent one year in the Pataskala High School, he 
entered the Preparatory Department of the Ohio Wesleyan Uni- 
versity, at Delaware, in the fall of 1884, and was graduated in 
1890, with the degree of A.B. He accepted a position as instructor 
of Greek and Latin in Green Spring Academy, at Green Spring, 
Ohio, and at the end of one year was appointed professor of 
Greek in Ottawa College at Ottawa, Kansas. At the end of 
three years he removed to Granville, in his native State, where 
he was instructor in Greek, in Denison University, for one year. 

In October, 1895, he entered the Historical Department of the 
Johns Hopkins University, 



